Month: September 2008

Copenhagen talk on C# – what do you want to hear about?

By jonskeet

I’ve created a Google moderator page for the C# talk I’ll be giving in Copenhagen. I don’t know whether there will be internet access at the event itself (for people to create and vote up/down questions during the talk) but at least as there’s a month before the event, people can ask questions now and I’ll do my best to make sure I answer them. If you haven’t looked at Google moderator yet, it’s a very handy way of keeping track of questions during lectures etc. It’s almost a shame that people don’t tend to have laptops and internet access … Continue reading Copenhagen talk on C# – what do you want to hear about?

New addiction: Stack Overflow

By jonskeet

This may be old news to many readers, but there’s a relatively new development Q&A site called Stack Overflow. I’m not generally a fan of web forums as opposed to newsgroups, but Stack Overflow just works. In particular, the post/answer editor is better than anything similar that I’ve seen. I’ll readily admit that the reputation side of things appeals to my ego – which and I suspect it’s one of the main reasons it’s so popular. Developers tend to be somewhat egotistical 🙂 One of the aims of the site is to end up as the pseudo-canonical resource for development … Continue reading New addiction: Stack Overflow

Book Review: Programming C# 3.0 by Jesse Liberty and Donald Xie

By jonskeet

Resources The O’Reilly page (errata etc) Jesse Liberty’s page for his various books Buy it from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Disclaimer One reader commented that a previous book review was too full of “this is only my personal opinion” and other such disclaimers. I think it’s still important to declare the situation, but I can see how it can get annoying if done throughout the review. So instead, I’ve lumped everything together here. Please bear these points in mind while reading the whole review: Obviously this book competes with C# in Depth, although probably not very much. I was … Continue reading Book Review: Programming C# 3.0 by Jesse Liberty and Donald Xie

Book review: Pro LINQ – Language Integrated Query in C# 2008, by Joe Rattz

By jonskeet

I’m trying something slightly different this time. Joe (the author) has reacted to specific points of my review, and I think it makes sense to show those reactions. I’d originally hoped to present them so that you could toggle them on or off, but this blog server apparently wants to strip out scripts etc, so the comments are now permanently visible. Resources Buy from Amazon or Barnes and Noble Author’s web site Apress page (errata submissions etc) Introduction and disclaimer As usual, I first need to give the disclaimer that as the author of a somewhat-competing book, I may be … Continue reading Book review: Pro LINQ – Language Integrated Query in C# 2008, by Joe Rattz

Book reviews – what do you look for?

By jonskeet

I’ve just started writing the book review for “Pro LINQ – Language Integrated Query in C# 2008” and I wondered what people look for in a review. I’ve talked before about who is in the best position to write a review – but this is slightly different. In particular, what sort of balance do you want between totally factual aspects (what’s covered, the kinds of mistakes I found) and pretty subjective aspects (the writing style, quality of advice given)? Is a long and detailed review useful, or are you likely to just skip to the conclusion anyway? I guess it’s … Continue reading Book reviews – what do you look for?

Logging enumeration flow

By jonskeet

I’m currently reading Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 by Joe Rattz and yesterday I came across a claim about Enumerable.Intersect which didn’t quite ring true. I consulted MSDN and the documentation is exactly the same as the book. Here’s what it says: When the object returned by this method is enumerated, Intersect enumerates first, collecting all distinct elements of that sequence. It then enumerates second, marking those elements that occur in both sequences. Finally, the marked elements are yielded in the order in which they were collected. (first is the first parameter, the one which the method … Continue reading Logging enumeration flow

Annoying IE8 beta 2 CSS breakage

By jonskeet

Okay, firstly let me make it very clear that I know very little about CSS. The nuances of layout in CSS fill me with fear, particularly in terms of trying to get all browsers to behave sensibly. Until recently, I thought that the C# in Depth web site was reasonably sensibly behaved. It’s a simple layout: header at the top, menu on the left, content on the right. Okay, so it would be nice if the menu (which has a different background colour) could always fill the whole viewport on the left hand side, preferrably staying static as well, but … Continue reading Annoying IE8 beta 2 CSS breakage

With apologies to Flanders and Swann

By jonskeet

If you don’t know The Gas Man Cometh then this will probably make very little sense. If you haven’t heard any Flanders and Swann at all, please find some. It’s ever so funny. Tomorrow morning, my boiler is being serviced. A couple of colleagues remarked that it was clearly the wrong day for a gas man to come, and we then just had to work out which workman comes on Thursdays. By the time we’d sorted out all the days it was time for me to go home, and on my way out of the building I had the idea … Continue reading With apologies to Flanders and Swann

Developer Developer Developer day 7: voting now open

By jonskeet

Every so often, Microsoft in Reading (in the UK) hosts a “Developer Developer Developer” day where members of the community present talks on all kinds of topics. There are no Microsoft speakers – it’s a big community event. The next one is on November 22nd. Applications to speak have now been closed, and voting (for attendees to choose which sessions they’d like to hear) is now open. I’ve applied to present on three different topics: Protocol Buffers (with Marc Gravell), implementing LINQ to Objects in 60 minutes, and Push LINQ. There are far more potential sessions than time available, so … Continue reading Developer Developer Developer day 7: voting now open